


Each Heart Has A Haunted Chamber

by jujubiest



Series: The Longfellow Trilogy [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Dorks denying their feelings for silly reasons, First Kiss, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5310167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from Melody.Angelina.Stark: Would you consider doing a follow up (to Ships in the Night)? Maybe the two of them somehow find out about the other's feelings? Gosh idk anything would be fine really! :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Each Heart Has A Haunted Chamber

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Melody.Angelina.Stark](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Melody.Angelina.Stark).



> As the prompt requested, this is a direct follow-up to Ships in the Night.

_Each heart has its haunted chamber,_  
_Where the silent moonlight falls!_  
_On the floor are mysterious footsteps,_  
_There are whispers along the walls!_

_And mine at times is haunted_  
_By phantoms of the Past_  
_As motionless as shadows_  
_By the silent moonlight cast._

\- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,  _The Haunted Chamber_

* * *

 

One day, Barry Allen steals a glance across the room at Harrison Wells and finds those steely blue eyes staring right back at him. He blinks, looks hastily away, but Harrison doesn’t. He can feel those eyes on him long after he turns away.

There are breachers to round up and errant meta-humans from their own world to deal with, so Barry doesn’t have the time to think too deeply about that look, not until several days later.

It’s late. Cisco and Caitlin have long since gone home, and Barry’s just about to follow them when he turns to find Harrison sitting at his computer, completely ignoring whatever’s on the screen in favor of staring at Barry. It can’t possibly be what he thinks, but he’s not sure, and he wants to know. And at the moment, Barry has nothing to distract him from it, so he does the last thing he probably should do and confronts Harrison head on.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

He expects him to turn away, perhaps deny it. What he doesn’t expect is for Harrison to push his chair back from the computer and stand, cross the room to stop just a couple of feet away, facing him with his arms crossed across his chest, looking almost defensive as he speaks.

“Because…I can’t seem to stop.”

He sounds embarrassed, but also just…tired.

“I don’t understand,” Barry says. “Why—“

“Do not,” Harrison interrupts, his voice sharp, “make me say it.” Then the sharpness falters, and he finishes in a mortified whisper.

“Just please…don’t make me say it.”

Barry takes a cautious step forward, and Harrison practically jumps away from him, skittish as a cornered animal. But this Harrison Wells doesn’t have super speed, and in the blink of an eye Barry’s right there, inches away from him, hands steady on his shoulders, voice low and calming.

“Wait,” he soothes. “Please just…wait.”

Harrison’s breathing is quick and shallow, but he doesn’t move to push Barry away. His eyes are wide, dark, the blue almost consumed by the blacks of his pupils. And it hits Barry, how close Harrison is. How close and how _real_ , his body radiating warmth that Barry can’t help but gravitate toward. His hands slide upward as if of their own volition, moving from Harrison’s shoulders to cup his face.

“Barry,” Harrison breathes. “What are you doing?”

“I…I dunno. I can’t seem to stop either.”

He feels caught, as breathless as Harrison is. It’s like they’re being dragged together, like gravity is pulling them, and he can feel Harrison actually trembling beneath his hands.

“Hey,” he says again, voice barely above a whisper. “Hey, relax. It’s just me. It’s just me.”

He’s not sure who moves first, but suddenly their lips are pressed together, and Harrison makes a helpless noise against his mouth that shoots like lightning down Barry’s spine.

Then as suddenly as it began, it’s over. Harrison pushes Barry back and stumbles away from him as though drunk. He fetches up against the far wall, allowing himself to slide to the floor, eyes closed and a hand covering his mouth, looking stricken.

“Barry,” he says at last, voice muffled behind his hand. “ _Why_ would you do that?”

Barry considers for a moment, then crosses the room to join him, leaning back against the wall and keeping a safe bit of space between them. His hands are itching to reach for him, so he clasps them in his lap, determined not to mess this up…assuming he hasn’t ruined it already.

“I’m sorry,” he says at last. Harrison looks up at him, eyes full of something akin to betrayal.

“I have tried…since I got here, I’ve tried _so hard_ to just…leave you alone. Why couldn’t you let me?”

Barry offers him a sad smile.

“Please don’t make me say it,” he echoes Harrison’s earlier words back to him.

Harrison closes his eyes to that, turning away to lean his head back against the wall. Barry mimics his position, waiting. And hoping.

Finally, Harrison speaks.

“We really shouldn’t do this,” he says.

“I know.”

“I’m old enough to be your father.”

“Yeah, it would be…super complicated. In so many ways.”

“It would be distracting for both of us. Maybe even dangerous.”

Barry knows Harrison is right, about everything. He knows they both have too many things on their plate to even think about this. He also knows it’s probably unhealthy, on some level.

But when he thinks of coming into this lab every day and pretending the past ten minutes never happened, he has a feeling there’s no decision they can make here that _won’t_ be complicated, distracting, and dangerous.

Harrison must come to the same conclusion, because a moment later he hears him utter a soft “oh _hell_ ,” and then there are hands on _his_ face, pulling him in, and he smiles as Harrison Wells’s lips meet his for the second time that night.


End file.
